Evolution / Genetics / Biology

The Spanish Archaeological Mission of the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, has discovered a large lintel of red granite during excavations in the temple of Heryshef at the Herakleopolis Magna archaeological site, in Ihnasya el-Medina in the Beni Suef governorate.

Dr. Mahmoud Afifi, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, who announced the discovery, said the lintel is engraved with two cartouches containing the name of the Middle Kingdom King Sesostris II, (ca. 1895 – 1889 BC), who built the Lahun pyramid located some 10km from Ihnasya.

The presence of the lintel in the Heryshef temple proves the interest of Sesostris II in this site, and the Fayoum in general, explained Afifi.

Dr. Maria Carmen Perez-Die, the director of the Spanish Mission said the mission continued excavations in the temple of Heryshef and uncovered several building levels, of which one dated to the early 18th Dynasty (up to the reign of Thutmosis III (ca. 1479 – 1425 BC) and another to that of Ramesses II (ca. 1279 – 1213 BC).